Mitt Romney To Offer Energy Independence Plan

Sorry, Obama peeps, it does not include energy from unicorns and fairies

(Washington Post) Mitt Romney on Thursday will outline a plan that he projects would achieve North American energy independence by 2020 by opening new areas for offshore oil drilling, starting in Virginia and the Carolinas, and by empowering the states to lease federal lands for oil, coal and natural gas development.

Under the plan, environmental statutes and regulations would be removed or loosened to green-light more coal production and other industry priorities, and the United States would reach agreements for energy production with Canada and Mexico, including to build the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Now, reading the plan, the statues and regulations removed are simply the ones regarding greenhouse gas output, but those regarding real environmental destruction and real pollutants will be removed. Romney wants responsible revisions, improving environmental review, and stopping “sue and settle” by federal agencies, as well as better cooperation between the Feds and the states/companies (page 16 of the plan). We also read

Modernizing America’s complex environmental statutes, regulations, and permitting processes is crucial to ensuring that the nation can develop its resources safely and efficiently.Laws should promote a rational approach to regulation that takes cost into account. Regulations should be carefully crafted to support rather than impede development. Repetitive reviews and strategic lawsuits should not be allowed to endlessly delay progress or force the government into imposing rules behind closed doors that it would not approve in public. Energy development economic growth, and environmental protection can go hand-in-hand if the government focuses on transparency and fairness instead of seeking to pick winners and repay political favors.

Makes sense in the Real World. Back to WaPost

While President Obama has funneled federal dollars toward subsidies and loan guarantees for wind, solar and other green-energy industries, Romney would spend more broadly on research for new energy technologies.

Which makes a whole lot more sense, and is something many “clean” energy supporters have recommended, instead of simply dumping money into companies that are pretty much bound to fail and/or offer really expensive energy. The R&D needs to be performed beforehand, to make the energy cheap, reliable, and abundant. And the money shouldn’t be used simply to reward campaign donors, ala Obama’s green energy loans.

Romney’s campaign estimates that the plan would have an economic impact of $500 billion and result in 3 million new jobs, including more than 1 million in the manufacturing sector. The campaign projects more than $1 trillion in revenue for federal, state and local governments, although it did not specify over what period. It promises lower energy prices for middle-class families.

Those would be real jobs, not the fantasy jobs of Obama, most of which never appear, the rest being ones that temporarily appeared, then faded away when the companies realized their balance sheets were all negative.

Obviously, the plan does revolve heavily around oil, coal, and natural gas, and the WP mentions the links to big Oil and coal donators to Mitt. Well, duh: why would they want to donate to Obama, who’s trying to kill their industries?

“My opponent thinks new sources of clean, homegrown energy like wind energy are ‘imaginary,’â€‰” Obama said Saturday in Rochester, N.H. “That’s what he called them. Congressman Ryan said they were a ‘fad.’ Listen, since I took office, America has doubled the use of renewable energy. Thousands of good American jobs have been created. It’s helping us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. That’s not imaginary, that’s real.”

So, barely negligible to slightly negligible. Gotcha. And enviroweenies consistently block actual construction of many, many “green” projects. We need more than fantasy projects and ones that barely make it off the drawing board before they go bankrupt.